William Hill Marketing Team is Back at Work

It seems that order has been restored to William Hill Online (WHO) Tel Aviv office following a week of staff walkouts and much uncertainty about the future of the Tel Aviv office and its 185 employees.

Yesterday William Hill PLC (WH) fired 7 top managers in the Tel Aviv office and assured all remaining employees that there are no plans of closing the Israeli office and everybody can go back to work.

The concern over relocating the online marketing team from Israel to Gibraltar seems to be the reason that the staff walkout occurred last week.

However it seems that there was another factor that affected local employees and caused much frustration. WH announced last week to the London Stock Exchange that its chief marketing officer Eyal Sanoff has resigned at the end of September.

Some say Sanoff is planning on taking WH to court for breach of contract and has offered employees at WHO Tel Aviv office to leave WHO and join him at a new company he is planning on opening.

Sanoff opened the online marketing business together with Teddy Sagi (Playtech founder and 40% shareholder). Playtech bought back the business and then sold 71% of it to WH effectively creating WHO as a joint venture between William Hill PLC and Playtech that holds a 29% share.

In 2013 WH will have a call option on the 29% Playtech is holding and most analysts say that it will be in their best interests to exercise the option so they are able to gain full control over their marketing operations.